The Swell Season's Marketa Irglova is working on her second solo album, entitled Muna, and she's just announced a one-off NYC show at Le Poisson Rouge on October 10. She'll be joined by a band and playing songs from the upcoming release, as well as stuff from her last solo album, Anar, and some promised "old favorites" (one would imagine that would indicate some stuff from Once). Tickets for the show go on sale Friday.

In semi-related news, more folks than not first heard Marketa from the 2006 film Once which costarred Glen Hansard of The Swell Season. That film's writer/director, John Carney, has a new film out this summer that also mixes music and romance. Begin Again stars Mark Ruffalo as a washed up music biz exec and Keira Knightly as a singer/songwriter he discovers. The films also features CeeLo Green (who plays with Lionel Richie tonight at Jones Beach), Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) and Maroon 5's Adam Levine. The film opens around the country on Friday (6/27) and you can watch the trailer below.

Back in March Glen, whose irst ever solo album Rhythm and Repose is out on Anti- Records on June 19, went down to Austin where he played a bunch of sets at SXSW including one at our own Hotel Vegan. NYC Taper was there and he recently posted the audio. Download that at his site!

"Once," a slowly unfolding tale of two Dublin musicians falling in love, emerged early as the night's favorite, winning for John Tiffany's direction and for its book, by the Irish playwright Enda Walsh, as well as for set, lighting, sound design and orchestrations. (The actors in "Once" double as the show's band.)

Near the end of the broadcast Steve Kazee, who plays the emotionally broken guitarist at the center of "Once," won for best actor and used his acceptance speech to thank his cast mates for bucking him up after his mother's death in April, shortly after the musical opened.

"This cast has carried me around, and made me feel alive, and I will never be able to fully repay them," Mr. Kazee said. [NY Times]

Given the natural, understated quality of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová's heartfelt performances in the movie Once, it's hard to imagine anyone else successfully embodying their roles. The movie not only starred them, but was written by them; it was inspired by their story. And it takes some time to get comfortable with the new faces. But the transition from the screen to the stage isn't too much of a stretch. Much of the music has already been written, after all.

For the most part, Once, which recently opened on Broadway after a three-month run at a smaller theatre in the East Village, closely resembles the film. Girl meets boy busking on the streets in Dublin and soon (a bit too soon?) the two are sharing intimate details of their lives and making music together. Of course, it's not so simple.

With his polished good looks, Steve Kazee as the male lead comes across as a bit too suave and content for a man who supposedly embodies a dispirited loner, and Cristin Milioti as his counterpart lacks some of Irglová's vulnerability - not to mention, her character's Czech background can sometimes feel forced ("I'm always serious. I'm Czech!" she kept repeating for laughs, in an exaggerated accent). But any reservations about the new cast evaporate as soon as they pick up an instrument and begin to sing. Imitating Hansard's distinctive growl of a voice is no easy task, but Kazee holds his own. And the supporting cast (especially David Patrick Kelly as the man's father) is charming.

Though, it is billed as "fun" and "life affirming," the musical, like the film, is just as heartbreaking as it is romantic. As circumstance would have it, he has an unfinished love in New York, and she has a small child and - though we never see or hear him - a husband. As much as they might want to, running away together is never really an option. But in this case, the unnamed characters' quiet resignation to their separate fates only raises the story's emotional impact.

The stage setting - the dimly lit interior of a pub - is minimal. With a few small tweaks, the audience is made to imagine a music shop, a flat, and in one scene, the Irish coast. But the bare bones staging adds to the warmth of the production. The typical marks of a big-ticket Broadway production - flashy scenery and overly produced music - are wisely omitted by director John Tiffany in favor of a more modest musical with a big heart.

Over 20 years in the making, singer songwriter Glen Hansard will release his first ever solo album, Rhythm and Repose, on Anti- Records June 19. Best known for his work with The Frames, The Swell Season and in the feature film Once, for which he won an Academy Award, Rhythm and Repose is Hansard's debut solo album and first album of new material since his 2009 release Strict Joy with The Swell Season. The album will be available for presale at http://www.anti.com/store

In recent months Hansard has been seen in the documentary The Swell Season which has toured the film festival circuit this year, contributed two songs to the blockbuster soundtrack, The Hunger Games, and been active in the promotion of Once, The Musical which successfully opened on Broadway on March 18 to rave reviews, including the New York Times who explains, "what was always wonderful about 'Once,' its songs and its staging, has been magnified." Hansard will support the new record on a U.S. tour.

Rhythm and Repose is a result of Hansard's last year and a half of living in New York City. The album was recorded by Patrick Dillett (David Byrne, Arto Lindsay, Laurie Anderson) and produced by Thomas Bartlett (Doveman, The National, Antony and the Johnsons). The record features the musical talents of Brad Albetta (Martha Wainwright) on bass, Ray Rizzo on drums, Nico Muhly and Rob Moose on strings (Bon Iver, Y Music), David Mansfield on slide guitar (Dylan's Rolling Thunder Tour), Javier Mas (Leonard Cohen touring band) and half of Bruce Springsteen's current horn section. Assisting on vocals are Cristin Milioti (Once, The Musical), Sam Amidon, Marketa Irglova and Aida Shahghasemi (Marketa Irglova touring band).

Glen Hansard previewed some of those new songs at SXSW where one of the shows he played was the BrooklynVegan day party at 'Hotel Vegan' on Thursday, March 15th. Some pictures and videos from his 12:45pm set are in this post.

As the above blurb points out, the Once musical is running NOW in NYC, though Glen does not personally act or sing in it.

Glen, who meanwhile is hitting the road with Eddie Vedder, will headline four select shows in June including one on June 29 at Beacon Theater. Tickets for the NYC show went on presale today, and will become available to all as of 9am on Thursday (4/5).

All tour dates, the new solo album tracklist, and a Once musical video, below...

Marketa Irglova (aka 1/2 of The Swell Season) released her first solo album, Anar, this past October via ANTI-. Though she's credited as a main writer for a few of The Swell Season's songs, her personality as a songwriter comes through much stronger here than on any Swell Season album. The songs are all led by her piano which tends to suit her voice better than Glen Hansard's folk guitar. There's also a lot of early Joni Mitchell coming through and the horns on "Go Back" tread into Feist territory. The video for "Crossroads" is below and the album is available on iTunes.

She played some shows in November including one at Bowery Ballroom. She has a few upcoming dates in February including two in NYC happening on February 15 and February 22 at Joe's Pub. Tickets for both shows are on sale now.

The Swell Season (Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova performing songs from the motion picture Once) played a triumphant, sold-out, and emotional (though at times a bit 'adult contemporary') two hour show at Radio City Music Hall in NYC last night (May 19, 2008). A setlist will surface soon enough and that will help summarize things better than I can do right now, but... there was a lot of storytelling, a shout-out to Pianos where they played two years ago, two Van Morrison songs, Marketa's singing sister from the Czech Republic, an opener from Ireland who later came on stage with the Swell Season, a violinist who played one of his own songs, and at least two standing ovations. There was not any Kraftwerk or Pixies.

The Swell Season's next NYC show will be at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park (Summerstage) on September 17, 2008. Tickets go on sale Thursday.

'There is a certain poetry in a Grafton Street busker playing the Oscars," grins Glen Hansard.

"I feel like a plumber at a flower show. The indie rocker in me wants to say it's a load of bollocks, but if you are gonna get an award in this life, why not try and get yourself an Oscar?" The 37-year-old Dublin musician's life has the kind of fairy-tale arc that would make a good film, if it hadn't already been turned into one.

Hansard is the co-star of Once, a shoe-string budget feature (made for under £100,000) about an Irish busker and his platonic relationship with a Czech immigrant, played by 19-year-old Marketa Irglova. From extremely humble beginnings ("We never even thought it was going to get released, we just thought we might sell some DVDs after gigs"), it went on to win an award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival and become one of the art-house hits of the year, grossing $7 million in its first three months. Hansard and Irglova have been invited to perform their duet "Falling Slowly" at tomorrow's tonight's Oscars, where they have been nominated in the Best Original Song category. [Telegraph]